Study Unleases Torrent of Criticism

An Australian university has estimated that just 0.3% of files shared through BitTorrent are definitely legal. But torrent advocates have questioned the methodology of the study.

The report (PDF), from the University of Ballarat’s Internet Commerce Security Laboratory, involved a random selection of 1,000 torrent files. Of those:

  • 890 were confirmed to breach copyright
  • 91 were pornographic content which purported to be “amateur” material but where it was not possible to confirm the copyright owner had given permission for them to be shared
  • 16 were of uncertain legality
  • 3 were confirmed as being distributed with permission.

The report also noted that the most common categories were movies, music and television shows, in which all the torrents breached copyright laws. Listed by the number of people seeding (that is, sharing the complete file or files), all but one of the ten most popular files were movies.

However, there has been some questioning of the report’s accuracy. TorrentFreak gives the best breakdown of the potential problems, including:

The selection was not entirely random, but rather taken from the most-seeded files. That means categories such as books and software, which could have more legal torrents, are under-represented.

The figures for the number of seeds for particular torrents appear massively overstated (some had a million or more seeds listed despite being two years old), suggesting bogus data has been used. In particular, the number of seeds listed for the top ten torrents bears no relation to any confirmed figures. It look suspiciously like the report includes a lot of torrents which are fake and don’t contain the files they claim to.

Other figures don’t tally up: for example, one site which only distributes torrents of legal music files currently makes up 1.5% of all torrents on a major site.

Of course, nobody is seriously disputing that the vast majority of torrent files do contain copyright-breaching material, but if those calling for tighter copyright controls are going to use statistics, it is important their methodology isn’t open to question.


Comic-Con News: Link Round-Up

Even if you weren’t at Comic-Con this past weekend, you probably saw a good bit about it – especially on Twitter. Though if you missed some of the excitement, here are a few tidbits from around the web, as a follow-up to our earlier more in-depth coverage.

Avengers casting. In what seems to be one of the biggest moments from the con, the Avengers panel surprised everyone by assembling the entire cast. They came out one by one, including director Joss Whedon. So the line-up for the 2012 movie is: Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Chris Evans as Captain America, Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, and Mark Ruffallo as The Hulk.

Green Lantern news. i09 posted this list of 10 awesome things they learned about the new Green Lantern movie. Including that the recent image of the costume is only a “work in progress.” Phew! Though my personal favorite Green Lantern moment would have to be when Ryan Reynolds recited the oath for an adorable kid.

New music video for The Guild. Attendees of the panel for The Guild webseries were treated to a sneak peak of the new Bollywood-style music video hitting the web next week, a follow-up to last year’s smash hit Do You Wanna Date My Avatar?. And if you were hoping for more news about Felicia Day, here’s something: She’ll be appearing in a 10-episode arc in the SyFy series Eureka, alongside Guild co-star Wil Wheaon (and if you doubt their chemistry, just have a look at this.) Oh, and the SyFy premiered the trailer for the upcoming werewolf original movie Red.

Super Heroes vs. Westboro Baptist Church. Following news that Fred Phelps’ infamous protesters would be on hand at Comic-Con, groups of con-goers brandishing signs with tongue-in-cheek slogans like “God Hates Jedi” and “Kill All the Humans” staged their own counter-protest across the street. Geeks are love!

Pacey-Con. File this under ‘utterly random.’ Apparently Joshua Jackson, now in the hit show Fringe but once known for playing everyone’s favorite boyfriend Pacey on Dawson’s Creek, was outside the con “staging his own ‘Pacey-Con’, giving out fan fiction he wrote and getting pictures with the women, all while the ‘Dawson’s Creek’ theme music played on a boom box.”

Glee does Rocky Horror. The Glee panel revealed some themes for next seasons’ shows, including a Rocky Horror Picture Show episode. And as you may have already heard, there’s going to be a Britney Spears episode as well, featuring ditzy cheerleader Brittany.

Nikita debuted. The CW show premiered its pilot, which is apparently closer to J.J. Abrams’ Alias than the previous La Femme Nikita series. The verdict, according to the show’s star: “Dudes are gonna love it.”

Johnny Depp teases Pirates of the Caribbean 4. Unlike last year, Johnny Depp wasn’t available in person since he’s off filming PoTC 4, but someone in the audience captured this video of his on-screen introduction to the new film, which may or may not include the fountain of youth, cut-throats, mermaids, zombies, and Penelope Cruz.

Of course, you know what they say about cons… it’s all fun and games until someone gets stabbed in the eye. :(

[Image Source: hawaii (CC)]

2010 Comic Con Coverage

[Special Comic Con Coverage provided by Mike Templeton, for those of you who aren’t able to make it out this year, or have never been able to take part.  This is a breakdown of the first day of the San Diego Comic Con 2010.]

Getting Started

The day began by camping out in line for Hall H,  which is the 2000+ occupancy hall where movie companies like to make their announcements, screenings, etc., for their big movies. I arrived at 6:30 in the morning… 3 hours before San Diego Comic Con (SDCC)  actually opened its doors. This ritual of arriving early is becoming increasingly important as time goes on, because every year, SDCC gets bigger and it gets increasingly harder to get into the major panels. A large part of this is due to certain attendees actually staying in the same panel or room throughout the day, instead of participating in the expo or other panels. This obviously then limits those people who do want to move about from getting into multiple panels.

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